The year is 2036. In order to watch a movie on an Ultra Super HD Violet Ray Disc that you purchased legally, you download the required decryption key to a dose of nanobots that you inject into your retina. Unfortunately, the authentication server goes down just as you are starting the movie, so MegaMovieCorp, in accordance with its rights granted by the Super DMCA, fries the nanobots, destroying your eyesight. You are now a pirateterrorist and owe MegaMovieCorp several billion dollars. Meanwhile, your pirate friends are simply able to stream the movie directly into their brains, retain their eyesight, and don't go bankrupt.

Oddly - I know a guy who is coding something at this very moment. He fessed up for a player then got annoyed that it had to 'call home'. This is someone who took no time at all to do AACS, so I suspect something may appear on the radar soonish TM.

When there is a movie to pirate, a crack will appear. Despite all the insane DRM that has been tried on some PC games how long has any game gone without a crack? Have any managed to last even one month?

The only thing that appears to work is to put much of the actual game code on a remote server (and even then it's possible to run your own server). That's not really an option for movies as they don't have much scope for user interaction.

Is it just me, or does AACS 2.0 seem ridiculously burdensome for legitimate users. I have to connect another POS box to the Internet just to watch the physical media I paid for? No thanks.

It usually works like this: the new protection mechanism is more complex than the previous one therefore legitimate users have more hoops to jump through to get what they paid for while pirates pirate the content anyway.

Is it just me, or does AACS 2.0 seem ridiculously burdensome for legitimate users. I have to connect another POS box to the Internet just to watch the physical media I paid for? No thanks.

Exactly: people purchase physical media over streaming media for a few reasons:- Improved picture quality due to higher bitrates- Media can be played offline- Media will operate even after the company that sold it has gone bankrupt

Requiring a phone-home for playback removes advantage 2 and 3. AnyDVD-HD make it easy enough to play BDs at my leisure by removing the DRM, and more importantly makes it easier than going to the effort to pirate a BD image ('The Scene' is still stuck in the fixed-bitrate-to-fit-on-a-CD encoding mentality, so is not worth bothering with). If I need to jump through additional hoops to play back UHD media, I simply won't bother buying it.

The producers of the film/disc etc want the hard media to go away, just go away. They want all of it online and you the user to have zero control of it. Soon very soon all you will buy is the licence to view which they can give or take away as THEY see fit.

Internet posters can protest, will mean zip. I give it 10 years at best before the hard copy will be the pirate' side of the equasion.

The year is 2036. In order to watch a movie on an Ultra Super HD Violet Ray Disc that you purchased legally, you download the required decryption key to a dose of nanobots that you inject into your retina. Unfortunately, the authentication server goes down just as you are starting the movie, so MegaMovieCorp, in accordance with its rights granted by the Super DMCA, fries the nanobots, destroying your eyesight. You are now a pirateterrorist and owe MegaMovieCorp several billion dollars. Meanwhile, your pirate friends are simply able to stream the movie directly into their brains, retain their eyesight, and don't go bankrupt.

Sounds like a Shadowrun plot!

Your next move would be to replace your eyes with cyberware and deck in to the corps to erase your debt.

The year is 2036. In order to watch a movie on an Ultra Super HD Violet Ray Disc that you purchased legally, you download the required decryption key to a dose of nanobots that you inject into your retina. Unfortunately, the authentication server goes down just as you are starting the movie, so MegaMovieCorp, in accordance with its rights granted by the Super DMCA, fries the nanobots, destroying your eyesight. You are now a pirateterrorist and owe MegaMovieCorp several billion dollars. Meanwhile, your pirate friends are simply able to stream the movie directly into their brains, retain their eyesight, and don't go bankrupt.

.. then Google buys "MegaMovieCorp" and everyone with Cyber-Eye-Crypt-Tech (tm) technology has to watch 5 minutes of adverts every hour as part of the "subscription" model in the new (changeable) T&Cs

Even if the new AACS can't be cracked for a while, HDCP has long been broken. Therefore it should be simply possible to encode the stream from the player itself, no? If you can watch it, you can copy it, after all.

Even if the new AACS can't be cracked for a while, HDCP has long been broken. Therefore it should be simply possible to encode the stream from the player itself, no? If you can watch it, you can copy it, after all.

Yup, this is exactly what's going to happen.

I'm okay with the AACS change, because it frees up some of my budget; movies I can't rip to my media server are movies I wont' be buying. Comfortingly, the internet will still provide the content I'm looking for, without any encumbrance. If the creators aren't getting compensated for that, well, they've gone out of their way to make it so.

Meh... Physical media is all but dead anyway. I know streaming still doesn't offer exactly the same quality, but I'll be happy when I can stream any content for a reasonable subscription and good quality. Netflix has almost nailed it, but its catalogue is tiny in Portugal. No more €20+ for a single movie for me.

So essentially "physical media" now needs a connection to the internet. The one advantage that physical media still had was "you own the disc" and thus could play it anywhere at anytime (after FF through 30 minutes of unskippable trailers and commercials). They managed to remove even that feature. Ok studios you win. I will pass totally on it. Netflix and VOD for me. You can keep your $40 discs.

The producers of the film/disc etc want the hard media to go away, just go away. They want all of it online and you the user to have zero control of it. Soon very soon all you will buy is the licence to view which they can give or take away as THEY see fit.

Internet posters can protest, will mean zip. I give it 10 years at best before the hard copy will be the pirate' side of the equasion.

It's funny they'd want physical media distribution to die when they resisted online distribution for so very long.

When there is a movie to pirate, a crack will appear. Despite all the insane DRM that has been tried on some PC games how long has any game gone without a crack? Have any managed to last even one month?

The only thing that appears to work is to put much of the actual game code on a remote server (and even then it's possible to run your own server). That's not really an option for movies as they don't have much scope for user interaction.

Meh... Physical media is all but dead anyway. I know streaming still doesn't offer exactly the same quality, but I'll be happy when I can stream any content for a reasonable subscription and good quality. Netflix has almost nailed it, but its catalogue is tiny in Portugal. No more €20+ for a single movie for me.

I'm thinking the heat death of the universe will occur before you find happiness.

Imagine the fun of having some friends over to watch a movie. Got the popcorn and beer, lights dimmed. Nice 80" UHD screen and comfortable seats. Pop the disc in and ... "ERROR DECRYPTION KEY SERVER DOWN". You know it will happen. Of course that could happen for streaming but once again streaming at least has other advantages. This essentially combines all the disadvantages of physical media with all the disadvantages of streaming and is sold at the highest price.

The producers of the film/disc etc want the hard media to go away, just go away. They want all of it online and you the user to have zero control of it. Soon very soon all you will buy is the licence to view which they can give or take away as THEY see fit.

Internet posters can protest, will mean zip. I give it 10 years at best before the hard copy will be the pirate' side of the equasion.

It's funny they'd want physical media distribution to die when they resisted online distribution for so very long.

Well think about it. If no one is watching your content, no one is stealing your content. Hence, maximum profit.

There are a number of critical differences between then and now. Back then few devices connected to the internet, there was no wireless, and DIVX was trying to compete with a superior format.

For 4K UHD BluRay:- It's a superior quality over the current offering and supported by the industry.- At home connected devices is normal- It's a luxury product for a luxury market

Keep in mind that the majority of people who watch media do it via Streaming now. Those that do care about quality have the income to support that hobby. Those whose primary concern is on format shifting or anti-copyright/MPAA concerns are a tiny minority of the home video market.

So, it has a good chance of being the last success for home media. I don't think there's a future beyond this for media.

So, it has a good chance of being the last success for home media. I don't think there's a future beyond this for media.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "success". Bluray never had the success of DVD. Even today DVD outsells BR both in units and total revenue. A few years ago total disc sales were passed by online/VOD/streaming revenue. Will it die off within a year? Probably not but I doubt it will be a success.

I was just going to say the same thing. Admittedly DIVX failed in an age (late 90s) when most people didn't have always-on internet yet, so it was a doubly stupid idea then, but even now, it's still single-stupid. My BD player is a PS3, so it does have internet access, but I wonder how many people have bothered hooking theirs up to the internet if not using a game system for this purpose.

Considering how rare 4K content is now, and how long it will take for computers to catch up and do the decoding in a reasonable time period even if a decryptor already existed, I don't think this is anything to worry about much - there's plenty of time for AACS2 to fail in the marketplace before it becomes a crisis. It was inevitable that eventually the DRM maniacs would come up with something reasonably competent.

The problem with streaming-only for me (in addition to being chained to Apple or Amazon) is actually subtitles. I have family members who require them, and It is exceedingly hard to find movies online (legitimately, that is, I'm sure once again torrents may have them) that have the language I need. Even worse, studios make sure that not all the films in a given series will have the same languages, so I can watch the last Hunger Games, but they better learn Danish or Hebrew (sigh, or English, but it's out of my control) if I want to watch the other ones.

Is it just me, or does AACS 2.0 seem ridiculously burdensome for legitimate users. I have to connect another POS box to the Internet just to watch the physical media I paid for? No thanks.

Exactly: people purchase physical media over streaming media for a few reasons:- Improved picture quality due to higher bitrates- Media can be played offline- Media will operate even after the company that sold it has gone bankrupt

Requiring a phone-home for playback removes advantage 2 and 3. AnyDVD-HD make it easy enough to play BDs at my leisure by removing the DRM, and more importantly makes it easier than going to the effort to pirate a BD image ('The Scene' is still stuck in the fixed-bitrate-to-fit-on-a-CD encoding mentality, so is not worth bothering with). If I need to jump through additional hoops to play back UHD media, I simply won't bother buying it.

I don't know where you're seeing movies encoded to fit on a CD, I haven't seen anyone doing that in years.

Is it just me, or does AACS 2.0 seem ridiculously burdensome for legitimate users. I have to connect another POS box to the Internet just to watch the physical media I paid for? No thanks.

Exactly: people purchase physical media over streaming media for a few reasons:- Improved picture quality due to higher bitrates- Media can be played offline- Media will operate even after the company that sold it has gone bankrupt

Requiring a phone-home for playback removes advantage 2 and 3. AnyDVD-HD make it easy enough to play BDs at my leisure by removing the DRM, and more importantly makes it easier than going to the effort to pirate a BD image ('The Scene' is still stuck in the fixed-bitrate-to-fit-on-a-CD encoding mentality, so is not worth bothering with). If I need to jump through additional hoops to play back UHD media, I simply won't bother buying it.

I don't know where you're seeing movies encoded to fit on a CD, I haven't seen anyone doing that in years.

It's been a couple years since I've even looked for a movie to download (and that was a movie that was unavailable for sale in the US), but at the time, even TV shows often didn't fit onto a CD anymore in terms of size. VCD is dead.

The year is 2036. In order to watch a movie on an Ultra Super HD Violet Ray Disc that you purchased legally, you download the required decryption key to a dose of nanobots that you inject into your retina. Unfortunately, the authentication server goes down just as you are starting the movie, so MegaMovieCorp, in accordance with its rights granted by the Super DMCA, fries the nanobots, destroying your eyesight. You are now a pirateterrorist and owe MegaMovieCorp several billion dollars. Meanwhile, your pirate friends are simply able to stream the movie directly into their brains, retain their eyesight, and don't go bankrupt.

In the same year of 2036, I wake my weary self to put on the computer, connect to my superVPN and connect to Ars.

I see the same old arguments that I have been seeing for 20+ years, only difference is there are millions of blind people because of MegaMovieCorp. I remind everyone that I still have perfect eyesight because iPirateEverything.

I remove my sexbot from the closet as I have no more interest in the conversation, while people connected to the MAFIAA industries furiously try to downvote me into oblivion...